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**Florida dairy farms were making adjustments and preparations long before Hurricane Irma arrived. Ben Butler with Butler Oaks Farms tells Brownfield that feeding nearly 1,000-plus milk cows was a challenge before Irma arrived because trains and trucks weren’t bringing corn into Florida.

Butler says they had to make ration changes and cut corn back 25%, while adding citrus pulp to get by for about a week.

Butler says he’ll likely have to dump some milk before everything is back to normal.

**Estimates of Russia’s record wheat crop continue to grow.

According to Brownfield, Russian ag consultancy SovEcon has raised its estimate by another 2.2 million metric tons to 81.1 million.

Russian wheat EXPORTS are also increasing, although the record harvest is apparently starting to put a strain on the country’s crop storage and transport infrastructure with reports of railcar and storage shortages in some regions.

**The House plans to finish work this week on a giant, eight-bill appropriations measure as lawmakers look to set up negotiations with the Senate on a fiscal 2018 budget agreement.

According to Agri-Pulse, the House measure combines bills that fund nearly all the departments and agencies important to agriculture, including USDA, the Food and Drug Administration, the Interior and Labor departments, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

The 2018 budget year begins October 1st, but the House and Senate have until December 8th to reach an agreement on FY18 spending.